Soft Chocolate Cookies with Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting

  

Chocolate + peanut butter = the BEST combination ever invented.  Seriously..who wouldn't agree??? Last year, I wanted to make a rich chocolate/peanut butter dessert for a cross country race, so I created these cookies.  I started with a chocolate cookie: soft, chewy, slightly cakey, and pillow-like chocolatey goodness.  They taste great alone, but I like my desserts to be more over-the-top...so I added a rich, fluffy, peanut-butter frosting.  Mmm...it's lip smackin' good.  These chocolate peanut butter cookies are absolutely incredible!  This is one of the only recipes I've made that I haven't thought once about altering...it's just that perfect!  These are very rich and fudgey - mainly due to the frosting.  When you sink your teeth into this, you'll be in chocolate-peanut-butter heaven.

Yield: about 5 dozen small cookies

For the chocolate cookies:

Ingredients:

4 squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

Instructions: 

Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar; mix well. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Heat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake 8 min. or just until set. (Do NOT overbake.) Cool on baking sheet 1 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

For the peanut butter frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Instructions:

1. Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. 
2. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.  
3. Spread on top of cooled cookies.  You can also sandwich them together if you want...but I prefer just one cookie with lots of frosting b/c it's easier to eat and you experience more peanut butter flavor.